1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a magnetic disk drive used in data processors and the like, and specifically it relates to a magnetic disk drive with a dust cleaning function capable of reducing the amount of dust which is generated by the bearings of the magnetic head positioner and scattered in the sealed case.
2. Description of the Related Art
An explanation will first be given regarding a conventional magnetic disk drive, with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2.
Referring to FIG. 1, a conventional magnetic head positioner 100 has a shaft 103 anchored at one end into a base member 102, a plurality of bearings 104 anchored around the shaft 103, an arm holder 105 anchored around the bearings 104 and held in a rotatable manner around the shaft 103, and a head arm 106 fittedly anchored in the arm holder 105 and capable of carrying a plurality of magnetic heads.
Referring to FIG. 2, a conventional magnetic disk drive includes, in a sealed head disk assembly (hereinafter called a sealed HDA) having a cover member 101 and a base member 102, the magnetic head positioner 100 shown in FIG. 1 carrying a plurality of magnetic heads 107, a spindle motor 109 carrying a plurality of magnetic disks 108, and a voice coil motor 110 for rocking the magnetic head positioner 100. In addition, there is mounted under the base member 102 an electronic circuit board 111 for electrical control of the magnetic head positioner 100, the spindle motor 109 and the voice coil motor 110.
However, this conventional magnetic disk drive has some disadvantages, which are explained below.
In recent years, magnetic disk drives have come into more widespread use as external storages for data processors. Also, in order to achieve greater processing speeds for the magnetic disk drives themselves, the positioning speed of magnetic head positioners are also becoming faster. As a result, the rotational speed of the bearings is increased, leading to a greater number of dust particles generated by wear of the bearings themselves, and therefore a great amount of dust is scattered in the sealed case. For example, when this dust infiltrates into the minute spaces between the magnetic disks and the magnetic heads, physical damage is incurred on the magnetic disks and the magnetic heads, eventually rendering impossible the proper reading and writing of data in the magnetic disk drive.